4o8 Veterinary Medicine. 



Pyrenees or of the Jura Valley in France to the dry elevated lands 

 of Dauphiny, Provence and I/anquedoc in France, or to the 

 mountainous regions of Catalonia in Spain in the well justified 

 confidence that few of them will suffer a second attack. 



It is rare in native horses in Denmark (Bang), Norway and 

 Sweden (Malm), but less so in imported German horses. 



As a direct test the French Government sent ten yearling foals 

 from the afEected depot at Ivimousin to the healthy depot at 

 Tarbes, retaining an equal number at home as test animals ; it 

 also sent ten yearlings from Tarbes to I/imousin, retaining an 

 equal number at Tarbes as test cases. Then the twenty yearlings 

 at Limousin were divided, five of the home bred and five drawn 

 from Tarbes having been sent into a very low wet country at 

 Lariviere, and the rest were sent to a high dry location at Mara- 

 val. The result was that but one of the ten yearlings sent from 

 I/imousin to Tarbes contracted the disease, while on the damp 

 land at Lariviere one lyimousin-bred and four Tarbes-bred colts 

 suffered ; and finally, on the dry soil at Maraval not a single colt, 

 from either lyimousin or Tarbes was attacked. 



The other conditions that usually attach to a low, damp soil 

 are important factors. Damp air and a cloudy, rainy climate 

 are potent accessory causes. Hence the great prevalence of the 

 disease formerly in Ireland, on the west coast and in the fen 

 country in England, in Belgium, in the Low Pyrenees, in the 

 valleys of the Loire, Jura, Meuse, Moselle, the Guadalquivir, 

 etc., (Reynal). Such, an atmosphere relaxes the system, in- 

 duces a heavy lymphatic temperament, with coarse bones and 

 muscles, an excess of connective tissue, thick hide and hair, and 

 thick, shaggy and often gummy legs. All this implies a low 

 tone of health which will less effectually withstand inimical 

 influences. 



The rank, aqueous fodders grown on such damp localities 

 have a similar effect. These are more bulky and less nutritive 

 and fail to maintain the highest tone and vigor. The animals 

 must overload the stomach and intestines in order to obtain the 

 requisite amount of nutriment, so that with a large, pendent 

 belly they are still in poor condition. The case is even aggra- 

 vated when they go on the succulent grasses of early spring, as 

 they continue to gorge and may even make fat, but they lack in 

 muscle and tone and in this condition even the rapid formation 



